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"Balls"
"Balls", LLC. (sometimes called Balls, formerly "Balls", Inc.), is a multinational video game developer, licensor, distributor and publisher founded in 1981 by Michael Wildshill, John Harris and Bill Williams, known for the Balls series. The company was acquired by Fox Interactive (now Fox Digital Entertainment) and Universal Interactive Studios in August 1994 and located in Culver City, California. Over the years, "Balls" has made deals to develop games with various small companies, such as it's divisions: Slik Games, "Balls" of Japan, "Balls" of Europe, Wingstar Studios, Starway Games, "Balls" Game Labs and acquired many companies since mid-1990s. In 1998, co-founder Bill Williams died and then, in late 2014, co-founder John Harris announced the departure from Balls Corporation. History "Balls" was founded in 1981 by Michael Wildshill, Bill Williams and John Harris as a company specializing in video compression and non-linear editing systems, particularly for Acorn Archimedes computers. "Balls" made its first game called Balls., and made a series out of them. In August 1994, "Balls" was acquired by Fox Interactive and Universal Interactive Studios, and two years later, the Geo Adventure ''series was made using the GeoBob Engine. In 1995, "Balls" moved from their original headquarters in San Jose to new offices in Culver City. In 1998, Bill Williams, the co-founder of the company, died and games released during 1998 and 1999 included a memoriam. On August 15, 2000, "Balls" ended it's contract with and spun-off from Universal Interactive Studios, and in November 7, 2011, did the same with Fox Digital Entertainment. In E3 2008, "Balls" announced a now-cancelled free-to-play MMORPG, developed by it's San Francisco studio which was closed few years later in 2010. In 2012, the remaining co-founders John Harris and Michael Wildshill formed a parent company soon to be called "Balls" Corporation. In September 2013, after Blitz Games Studios has been closed, Balls Corporation bought the Minions series, Volatile Games, TruSim, BlitzTech and Blitz Academy. In January 1st, 2014, friend of the founder (Michael Wildshill), Edward Fowly announced "Balls" to be closed in December 2014, because of financial difficulties. Sam G., a worker at "Balls" who is a cousin of Geo G., told Wildshill about this. Wildshill said that Fowly was just joking and "we had enough money". On June 11, 2014, Balls Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. After selling many studios and mergering groups to Mango, Balls Corporation is no longer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as of June 25th, 2014. During April 2014, it was reported that Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, Warner Bros, Viacom, Microsoft and Ubisoft offered to acquire Balls Corporation for undisclosed amounts (depending on what acquisition), but Balls Corporation declined the cash offer. 21st Century Fox then offered US$4 billion on May 15, 2014 to acquire the company, but was again declined. Balls Corporation had a short time in bankruptcy, until it closed and sold many units and studios. In 2015, "Balls" merged HenryGames, third of GeoBob Engine Development Team and few internal development groups to form "Balls" Game Labs, which focuses on computer science, game development and their connections. Failed acquisitions In October 2013, "Balls" tried to acquire PrimeSense for $200 million and failed. Company structure and studio history In January 2014, Michael announced that "Balls" is opening a New Orleans studio "sooner, maybe the following year." Unfortunately, "Balls" closed down studios from Dusseldorf, Cambridge (US), Valencia, New Taipei and Bucharest and had massive lay-offs, while the rest of the work on ''Chroma, the new IP by Harmonix, was moved to Hidden Path Entertainment. Later, employees were hired by UltraNitro Studios. Bankruptcy and liquidation controversy After several years of financial struggles, on June 11, 2014, Balls Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the public auction on June 21, 2014, Balls Corporation’s game development business in: *Seoul (South Korea) *West Los Angeles (Salt Lake, USA) *Istanbul (Turkey) *London (England, UK) *Bangalore (India) *Beijing (China) *McKinney (USA, remaining half of split of Zynga With Friends after acquisition by both UltraNitro Studios and "Balls") *Boston (USA) *Mountain View (USA) *Stockholm (Sweden) *Hamburg (Germany, remaining half of split of Fishlabs after acquisition by both UltraNitro Studios and "Balls") *Annecy (France) *Sydney (Australia) and few intellectual properties and unfinished projects were acquired by and merged to UltraNitro Studios, once again. Soon, the Abu Dhabi, Saigon, Nagoya, Makati, Manchester and Jakarta studios were bought by Starway Games. Geoshea Games bought game businesses in Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), Shenzen and Hangzhou (China), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Pune (India), Needham and Warrington (UK), Singapore (Singapore), Ingelheim and Mainz (Germany) and Sofia (Bulgaria). Ubisoft acquired "Balls" Studios Bucharest and merged it to Ubisoft Bucharest. Balls Corporation then closed studios at Casablanca, Sofia, Eugene, Las Vegas, Szczecin, Mexicali, Hanoi, Kharkov, Da Nang, Madrid, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Warsaw, Medellin, Bogota, Taunton and Valletta during June 22nd and 24th, 2014. Then, Balls Corporation liquidated it's studios at New England (USA), Heusenstamm (Germany), Bydgoszcz (Poland), Sheffield (UK), Taipei (Taiwan), Camarillo (USA), Budapest (Hungary), Bristol (UK), Cheltenham (UK), New Delhi (India), Copenhagen (Denmark), Prague (Czech Republic), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Canberra (Australia), Chengdu (China), Zurich (Switzerland), Teesside (UK), Milan (Italy), Oxford (UK) and Vienna (Austria), discontinued the "Balls" Mobile brand (and then closed mobile game studio in Bucharest following the discontinuation; now "Balls" Indipendent Games will handle both indie games and mobile games). Meanwhile, the Redwood and Guildford studios were bought by EA and the Treyarch studio was bought back by Activision. The Seattle, Paris, Rotherham, Brisbane, Irvine, Darien, Gainesville, Plymouth, Kiev, "Red Storm", Frankfurt and Dallas studios were closed on June 24, 2014, following the public auction, because Balls Corporation failed to find a buyer for the studio. Afterwards, the Cluj and Kula Lumpur studios were merged to Mango's Cluj and Kuala Lumpur facilities. Later, still June 24, 2014, TDG Designer & Enviroment Group, Technical Support Group, Service Database, SP UI Development Group, GAB UI/Sound Group, IRE Planning Group, "peripheral side" of the TDG Mechanical Group, half of the TDG Hardware Development Laboratory Group, IRE Technology & Mechanical Group and Industrial Group with "Balls" EMCS's Komarom and Bochum facilities all merged to Mango, while rest of the TDG Mechanical Group, other half of the TDG Hardware Development Laboratory Group, SP Sound Orchestra, some of the GAB Sound/UI Group and SP Software Development Group merged to Game Analysis & Bug Club Group. They were said to be the biggest merger in the history of Balls Corporation. There are also other intellectual properties, assets, etc etc. sold in public auction, such as: *Distribution rights for Smash Fight 5 and Geo Adventure 2015 (acquired by Koch Media US/Deep Silver for $15 million) *A studio at Hannover (acquired by SnakeCore for $5 million; moved to and then merged to the owner a month later) *Fiox series, trademarks, brands, game library, studio of TruSim and Blitz Academy programme (acquired by Reset Studios for $2 million) *Minions series (acquired by Geoshea Games, Co. for $10 million) *BlitzTech (acquired by (and merged to) The Geoshea Studio Development Team for $5 million) *Balls series (acquired by Codemasters for $13 million) *''Smash Fight'' series, rights of Riverside studio's upcoming game's ports to Xbox One, PSVita, PS4, Wii U, iOS and Android (acquired by SnakeCore for $12 million, game ports were eventually cancelled) *Licensing rights for Geo Adventure series (acquired by Ubisoft for $10 million) *BigPark's trademarks (and it's co-owning rights) and the staff (sold back to Microsoft Studios for $6 million) Post-Chapter 11 bankruptcy controversy Balls Corporation is no longer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as of June 25th, 2014. Balls Corporation acquired UTV True Games and Ignition Entertainment from UTV in June 27th, 2014. Afterwards, the trademarks and brands merged but the studios didn't use "Balls" brand in their brand, as of the acquisition. Orlando and Nottingham studios were closed in June 30th, 2014, and sadly, they didn't manage to make any games. The Hyderabad and Newcastle studio were also announced to be closed in July 5th, 2014, while they did create games but also contributed on few games and the Riverside studio announced it's last game'' Geo Adventure Dimensions, which is currently on hold. IGN and Kotaku describe this as the fall of the "Balls" studios. In July 30th, "Balls" Corporation announced the closure of Volitale Games after only 9 months of activity under "Balls" Corporation, the Auckland, Wakefield, Barcelona, Dublin, Novato (Marin), East Linton, Melbourne, Bangkok & Minsk (as "Balls" Studios Belarus) studios (and Ignition studios in Texas and Tokyo), it's QA team at Novato, Mango's Komárom & Bochum facilities, "Balls" EMCS (Engineering, Manufacturing and Customer Service; closed after it's upcoming console was cancelled) and it's only testing center "Balls" Beta Testing Studios USA, which was located at Las Vegas. The lay-offs hit Riverside studio in July 30th, 2014, when 80% of the staff (which was about 120 people) was laid off, but eventually 95 people moved to "Balls" Studios Montréal, while 25 people moved to Dambuster Studios, owned by Deep Silver. On July 31st, "Balls" R&D Amusement Studios at Tokyo and Chicago ceased the operations, including all of internal game development, when "Balls" discontinued the brand and ceased all of arcade game development. In August 1st, "Balls" Corporation announced that the staff of recently closed studios will be transfered (and Network Business & Service Group and European Research Group will be merged) to the new studio in Montréal, Canada. "Balls" also announced the change of opening date of Los Angeles studio from November to October. The Birmingham studio was closed (and merged 95% to "Balls" Studios Montréal and 5% was moved to Dambuster Studios) and Yager Development spun off from "Balls" the same day. In August 2nd, 2014, Mango's Los Angeles office was merged to then-upcoming Los Angeles studio. Later on, "Balls" announced that as part of a restructuring (which happened during June, July and August), the development of yet unnamed projects would be shifted from both "Balls" Studios San Diego and "Balls" Studios Camden to "Balls" Studios Dundee, and the internal game development, licensing division and contributing work on other games developed by other "Balls" studios were halted in both "Balls" Studios San Diego and "Balls" Studios Camden. Again, the staff of the studios (but 97% from San Diego studio and 95% from Toronto studio, this time) moved to Montréal studio. The projects were cancelled the same day. In August 11th, "Balls" announced that LA and Montreal studios will be opened in September 5th, rather than October and November. The Los Angeles studio focuses on arcade-action games, strategy & strategy-simulation games, leading edge games and real-time adventure games, rather than mainstream, next-gen, cutting edge and action games, which Montreal studio is working on. When the studios finally opened, they were both announced at Wingstar Studios and Wingstar Studios LA, with ffices in Hunt Valley. There were alot of rumors about "Balls" acquiring studios again and formed another studios in Osaka (inside "Balls" of Japan's headquarters), Orange County and Brighton. Despite all this, the closings of Balls Corporation’s studios in San Antonio, San Mateo (Slik Games) and Dundee is under review. The acquisition rumours were confirmed with acquisitions of Saturn Interactive, Westend Game Studios, and most notable acquisition, a casual game and game making website Boong.com. Then, Boong Dallas and Westend Game Studios announced their collabration, which is a multidimensional Mahjong game called Mahjong Shift. After 31st of December, 2014, John Harris announced that he will leave from "Balls" to focus on other ventures, Mauno Tuomela decided to "step down from being a CEO to being an executive producer" and the new CEO was announced to be Daniel Garcia. Studios Current established studios *"Balls" of Europe, founded in 1996. *"Balls" of Japan, founded in 1996. *"Balls" Studios Chicago, founded in 1996. *"Balls" Studios Riverside, founded in 2008. *"Balls" Studios Dundee, founded in 2007. *Wingstar Studios, founded in Montréal in 2014. **Wingstar Studios Los Angeles, founded in Los Angeles in 2014. **Wingstar Online Studios, founded in Hunt Valley, Baltimore in 2014. *"Balls" Studios New Orleans, founded in 2014. Current acquired studios *Slik Games, founded in March 1993 in San Mateo, California, acquired on July 3, 1996. **Slik Games South, established in 2003 as "Balls" Studios San Antonio. Balls Corporation renamed the studio, restructed and moved under and is now a development branch of Slik Games, as of September 2014. **Slik Games UK, established in 2002 as "Balls" Studios Manchester, sold to Starway Games and merged under Starway Games UK in 2014, sold and restructed under Slik Games in September 2014. *Starway Games, founded in 1990, acquired in 1996. **Starway Games USA - the headquarters of the studio, located at Santa Monica, California. **Starway Games UK - located at both Essex, United Kingdom. Responsible for game development, game assurance and localization. **Starway Games Japan - responsible for localization and game porting. **Starway Games Abu Dhabi, being the current co-owner with Abu Dhabi Media Group/Image Nation, the studio was bought from "Balls" in a public auction in June 2014. **Nyriam - located at Osaka, Japan. * Westlight Game Studios, founded in 2009 in Porto Alegre, acquired in 2014. ** Saturn Interactive, founded in 2007 in Dublin, acquired in 2014. Moved under Westlight Game Studios in 2015. *Boong.com, founded in 2009, acquired in 2014. Has offices in Redwood City, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Shanghai and Hunt Valley. ** Boong Dallas, founded in 2012, acquired in 2013. ** Boong Arizona, founded as Orange Box Games at Tucson, Arizona in 2005, acquired in 2013. *** Boong San Diego, founded as Orange Box North in 2006, acquired in 2013. Defunct *SIZ founded in 1994, acquired in 1997, name changed to "Balls" Studios Wellington in 1999, closed in 2001. *K-3 Productions founded in December 1985, acquired in 1997, disbanded in 2001, closed and trademarks retired in 2002. *LO Studios founded in 2003, acquired in 2005, closed in 2006. *"Balls" Studios Montreal, founded in 1998, closed in 2009. *"Balls" Studios New York, founded in 1979 as GeoLand Studios in Quincy, Massachusetts, moved to New York in 1983, acquired in 1999, name changed to "Balls" Studios New York in 2000, closed in 2011 due to financial reasons. *"Balls" Studios Vancouver, founded in 1997, closed in 2010, half of the BigPark's staff and the trademarks were acquired in 2012, BigPark replaced the Vancouver studio in 2013, the trademarks were sold back to Microsoft in a public aution in 2014. *"Balls" Studios Orlando, founded in 2001, closed in 2014. *"Balls" Studios Nottingham, founded in 2003, closed in 2014. *"Balls" Studios Birmingham, founded in 2013, closed in 2014. *"Balls" Studios San Diego, founded in 2008, closed in 2014. * "Balls" Studios Palo Alto, founded in 1995, closed in 2009. * "Balls" Studios Taiwan, founded in 1998, disbanded in 2003, closed and trademarks and copyright retired in 2011. * HenryStudios, founded in 2007 in Miami, Florida, acquired in 2011. Merged to form "Balls" Game Labs in 2015. Departured/former first-party studios *Rocksteady Studios, founded and acquired in 2004, name changed to "Balls" Studios Highgate in 2005, name changed back to Rocksteady and sold to WB Games in 2009 In-house development groups Games featuring Geo Guy *Geo 3D Cartoon Studio'' (1994, with Universal Interactive Studios) *''Geo Guy's Art Workshop'' (1995, with Universal Interactive Studios) *''Geo Crazy Puzzle'' (1995, with Universal Interactive Studios) *''Geo Guy in Fantastic Fun!'' (1996, with Universal Interactive Studios) *''Geo Adventure'' (1996, with "Balls") *''Geo Adventure 2'' (1997, with "Balls") *''Geo Adventure 3: The Rise of Gree Guy'' (1998, with Universal Interactive Studios) *''Smash Fight'' (1999, with Ubisoft) *''Geo Quest to the Guest (1999, with Universal Interactive Studios) *Geo Guy's Crazy Games'' (2000, with Universal Interactive Studios) *''Smash Fight 2'' (2002, with Ubisoft) *''Smash Fight 3'' (2008, with Ubisoft) *''Smash Fight 4'' (2014, with Ubisoft) Trivia Main article: "Balls"/Trivia Category:Companies